“Let’s have a preseason tournament where you’re guaranteed three games”.
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Jordan played two seasons for the Red Storm, averaging 12 points and 3.1 assists and last played in 2015 for the DE 87ers of the National Basketball Association D-League.
Yet, if nothing else, Calipari’s “crazy idea” was good for a column. We do it every year.
Ideally for Calipari, the tournament would take place in November and eliminate the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament the victor receives, which would instead be granted to the regular-season champion. Maybe it’s in Atlanta. SEC basketball fans – which means Kentucky backers – would have time to save up and plan for NCAA tourney trips. Let’s all of our fans go to Atlanta.
The Kentuckyhead coach must feel the need to support this change after his 2015-16 Kentucky Wildcats were given a lower seed than a team they beat for the SEC title. This would culminate with a championship game on one court and a loser’s bracket on the other court.
How would it benefit the pigskin-crazed SEC to hold its conference tournament in November at the height of football season?
Despite beating Texas A&M to win the NCAA tournament last season, the Aggies were seeded No. 3 and Kentucky was seeded No. 4, which led to the Wildcats being ousted in the second round by No. 5 Indiana. Where UK appeared to have 98 percent of the fans when it beat Texas A&M in the SEC tourney finals, the Cats did not seem to have a fan advantage at all when UK lost to in in the NCAA tourney round of 32 in Des Moines, Iowa. If the SEC wants to be more relevant in March, the rest of the league besides Kentucky just needs to get better.
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The SEC is known for their hard-pressed rules and differences when it comes to academics and athletics, and the league takes pride in winning championships despite the tough conditions they set for the schools. Even the academically-snooty Ivy League, the last holdout without a conference tournament, is starting one in 2016-17.
